Confidential documents from Assange rape probe leak onto Internet

The founder of secrets outlet WikiLeaks is now facing his own series of leaks.

A 100-page police file detailing rape and sexual molestation charges against Julian Assange has found its way onto the Adobe Acrobat document sharing website.

The file contains pretrial discovery materials given last year by Swedish police to Assange’s Stockholm attorney Björn Hurtig, according to Wired. The documents appear to have have been leaked after being faxed by Hurtig to Assange’s London Attorney Mark Stephens.

“Please note that the documents are legally privileged information for Mr Julian Assange and nobody else,” Hurtig wrote in the cover letter.

“I do not know who has given these documents to the media, but the purpose can only be one thing — trying to make Julian look bad,” Hurtig said in December, when details from the file were first published by The Guardian.

The documents obtained by The Guardian allege that Assange held down “Miss A,” one of his accusers, not allowing her to reach for a condom as they were about to engage in intercourse. Assange eventually relented but “did something” to the condom to make it break, “Miss A” alleged.

The newly leaked documents give no reason why Assange would have purposefully broken the condom.

“Miss A” had previously been identified as Anna Ardin, who is now reportedly volunteering with a Christian group in the Palestinian territories.

According to the leaked police documents, Assange’s other accuser, “Miss W” — previously identified as Sofia Wilen — woke up to find Assange having unprotected sex with her. The two had used protection earlier in the night.

Both women saved the used condoms for days before presenting them to police. While DNA evidence was obtained from the condom provided by “Miss W,” police did not have DNA material from Assange with which to compare it. No further testing was done.

“The documents show Assange was arrested in absentia within minutes of the two women reporting him for rape and sexual molestation, and before they had been questioned fully by police,” The New Zealand Herald‘s Juha Saarinen wrote.

At one point, a police investigator noted that she had been locked out of her interrogation notes and was told to create a new interview document with “necessary changes.”

One witness explained that “Miss A” sat in on the interview with “Miss W” and added something to “make her case stronger.”

“The police inspector who interviewed Wilen is listed as a friend of Ardin on social-networking website Facebook,” Saarinen observed. “Ardin and the inspector are both politically active in the Swedish Social Democratic Party.”

Assange was out on bail in London as he awaited a hearing on extradition to Sweden.

About the Author

David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.